


Nightmares

by For The Exiled (Crustuu)



Series: A Seed Sewn Below Aperture [1]
Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Nightmares, Slow Burn, but i tried to show GLaDOS's attraction, they're at the baby steps still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-23 09:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crustuu/pseuds/For%20The%20Exiled
Summary: Chell has always struggled with sleep. The only times she gets any, it's plagued with nightmares. But now she's stuck thousands of meters below the Aperture she once knew with no adrenal vapor to keep her conscious.
Relationships: Chell/GLaDOS
Series: A Seed Sewn Below Aperture [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668652
Comments: 4
Kudos: 109





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> First finished Portal fic, hoping I did well. Also hoping nothing was too OOC.  
> This is ChellDOS I swear but it's more just, the baby steps towards their relationship. I plan on making more to add to this but nothing's set yet.  
> Also the first time I'm posting to AO3 so bear with me!

Sleep was a strange thing for Chell. She rarely slept if ever in the past due to the adrenal vapor GLaDOS pumped into the chambers. But now Chell was stuck thousands of meters below the enrichment center that had once held her captive. And now GLaDOS had no control over anything. The once ruler of Aperture was now confined to a potato, and had been carried off by a bird right as Chell woke from unconsciousness.  
The fall had taken a lot out of Chell, even knocking her out, but she still found herself fit enough after waking to move. She didn’t have a dream, and assumed she had only been out a short while. But still, she felt unease from being out. The only other times in recent memory that she had gone unconscious had been against her will, and she had once vivid nightmares during them that had luckily faded over time. Those nightmares, however, made her hesitant to sleep.  
Chell felt her muscles scream with ache as she travelled through the wreckage she had been plunged into. But her body wasn’t all against her. Being knocked out from the fall had given her enough rest to stay awake and move through her surroundings. To analyze them. And the test subject did not trust whatever may lie down here. Whatever she was walking into felt more dangerous than the facility above, which was saying a lot.  
And Chell’s fears were confirmed when she had stumbled into an area with an automated message from someone named Cave Johnson, the old CEO of Aperture, and small inserts from his assistant, Caroline. She was still in Aperture, and she would still be testing. Fighting back any distress this reveal could cause, Chell continued on, blocking out the messages to focus on escape. She placed portals on a mix of instinct and knowledge to get herself through. If this was the bottom, the tests could bring her back up. Up to freedom. For once, the tests wouldn’t be a trap, but a means of escape.  
Chell could feel her energy had already been drained as she made her way to the first elevator. In the back of her mind, part of her was screaming to sleep. But the fear of nightmares and whatever may lay down here kept her from giving in. And testing with the addition of repulsion gel kept her mind awake with the new stimuli. She had gotten through each sphere with ease, and felt relieved to find out she only had to deal with three of them. At this rate, it wouldn’t take long to get back to the surface. And if Chell was lucky, Wheatley would’ve left the adrenal vapor on, eliminating the need to sleep. All she needed to do was to carry on and navigate the strange ruins of old Aperture.  
But she wasn’t nearly as lucky as she had thought. Making her way to the beginning of the next set of spheres, she could feel the effects of sleep deprivation weighing her down. If she hadn’t been moving still, trying to keep up speed, she would’ve slipped into slumber the moment she walked in and saw the catwalk to the next elevator had been destroyed. For once, Chell let her calm facade down and scrunched her face in displeasure, groaning inwardly. _’Of course it wouldn’t be easy, nothing’s ever easy in Aperture.’_  
Just as she was about to give in to the need of sleep, she noticed on top of the building she had just searched was a control room. With any luck, it would contain a way to get over to the elevator. The test subject made her way to the opening, placing portals that would fling her there with just enough momentum. It seemed lit up, giving Chell hope there would be a button or lever of some sorts inside. But as she walked in, she heard an uncomfortably familiar voice which woke her with anxiety.  
“Oh. Hi.” _GLaDOS._  
Chell scowled inwardly as she noticed the AI, now confined to a potato battery which was currently being feasted upon by a bird.  
“Say, you're good at murder. Could you - **_ow_** \- murder this bird for me?” Chell just watched with unwavering neutrality. She wouldn’t even give the machine the satisfaction of her disgust. But below that, Chell couldn’t deny she felt a little sorry for GLaDOS. And each ‘ow’ the once powerful being let out made her feel more and more sympathy.  
“No, wait. Just kill it and we'll call things even between us. No hard feelings.” GLaDOS sounded desperate, but Chell just stood there, arms crossed and watching the potato, not letting any sympathy she was starting to feel show. Maybe this could teach the once powerful being some humility.  
“Please get it off me. It's eating me.” Chell could hear the fear in GLaDOS’s voice, and it made her crack. Some of Chell’s sympathy seeped into her expression as she walked into the room, shooing off the black bird that had been pecking at the potato.  
“Oh! Thanks.” Chell started to give a half hidden smile, accepting GLaDOS’s thanks. But before she could do so fully, the area around them shook. An explosion sounded in the distance.  
“Did you feel that? That idiot doesn't know what he's doing up there. This whole place is going to explode in a few hours if somebody doesn't disconnect him.” Chell nodded lightly, letting GLaDOS know she was listening. “I can't move. And unless you're planning to saw your own head off and wedge it into my old body, you're going to need me to replace him. We're at an impasse. So what do you say? You carry me up to him and put me back into my body, and I stop us from blowing up and let you go.”  
GLaDOS began to drone on, trying to convince Chell to pick her up, but it wasn’t needed. Without paying attention to the machine’s words, the woman picked the potato up and stuck it onto the end of the portal device.  
“OW! You stabbed me! What is WRONG with yo- ** _WoOOAAahhh_**. Hold on. Do you have a multimeter?” Chell just glanced at the potato, making her way back to the remaining portion of catwalk. “Nevermind. The gun must be part magnesium... It feels like I'm outputting an extra half a volt. Keep an eye on me: I'm going to do some scheming. Here I g-” GLaDOS’s voice distorted, before she shut down. _‘Good, some more silence before being thrown back into hell.’_ Chell thought to herself. Reuniting with GLaDOS had given her a small burst of energy, but Chell could feel it draining fast. It hadn’t been enough and Chell found her mind fogging. She needed something to pay attention to or she would pass out and harm herself in the process. Chell stumbled, almost close to falling off the catwalk too early, when she heard GLaDOS return.  
“Woah! Where are we? How long have I been out?” Chell’s thoughts returned to the present as her eyes opened more and landed on GLaDOS. “That extra half volt helps but it isn't going to power miracles.” Chell nodded to herself, keeping awake long enough to fling herself onto the bit of remaining catwalk in front of the elevator.  
“If I think too hard, I'm going to fry this potato before we get a chance to burn up in the atomic fireball that _little idiot_ is going-” GLaDOS’s voice cut again, right as Chell was entering the lift to the next sphere. Once the sphere plunged into the darkness, Chell sat down and gave into the fatigue. She shut her eyes and rested the best she could during the brief ascent, but never truly slipped into unconsciousness. The woman let herself rest even after the elevator came to a stop, but jumped at the sound of talking.  
“Did anything happen while I was out?” Chell glanced at where she had left the portal gun on the floor of the elevator, GLaDOS was positioned so she could see the test subject.  
“Are you _okay_?” Her words made Chell shiver. GLaDOS sounded genuinely concerned, which threw the already exhausted woman off. “Look, we don’t have much time. If you’re not going to voice what’s wrong let’s _please_ get moving.” Chell nodded and picked up the portal gun, making her way to the next test.  
As the pair moved through the test, GLaDOS had an odd reaction to Cave Johnson’s messages. She spoke one of Caroline’s interjections perfectly in time with the long-gone woman and had even knocked herself out from how worked up she had gotten herself.  
Chell, however, tried to pay no mind to this and get out of the test as fast as she could. She could already feel herself beginning to pass out, her movements had slowed and she nearly plunged herself into the abyss of sludge that flooded the bottom of the testing sphere. Chell took a second to get her bearings and flung herself forward with some cleverly placed gel and portals to press a button, opening the exit.  
“Okay. I guess emotional outbursts require more than one point six volts. Now we know that. We just need to relax. We're still going to find out what the hell's going on here. But calmly.” Chell blinked her agreement, and walked slowly on the catwalk, her body shaking with each step.  
“Do you have any clue on h-” Chell didn’t hear anything else GLaDOS said as she slipped to the floor of the catwalk, half out of it. Her mind fogged and she couldn’t sense anything for a few moments. _‘Am I finally dying? Is this it?’_ Chell pondered inwardly as she felt herself slipping in and out of consciousness. She eventually found herself blacking out fully, only to be reawoken a couple of moments later.  
_"Chell..? **Chell?"**_ The woman let out a gasp of fear at hearing her name being said. Nobody had done so in many, many years. And it was GLaDOS who was saying it, the one being she never would have imagined saying her name. Especially not with such fear. At the time, Chell chalked it up to GLaDOS fearing she would never make it back up, back to her body, and she was half true. But there was another factor to the fear, one Chell would not find out for a while, and one that GLaDOS would never fully voice.  
“ _Oh **thank god** you’re alive_. If you’re exhausted or injured we can’t safely continue, you know. I understand you’re mute but you should voice that _somehow_.” Chell gave a weak smile to the potato and shrugged gingerly. Her whole body was sore and what little energy she had gained from passing out was fading fast.  
“Seriously. You should rest. There has to be an open office somewhere here, slip into it and just lie down for a few.” Chell gave GLaDOS a slow blink and got up carefully. Thankfully, the AI had been right and Chell could see an opening to an office from where she had laid. With two portals, she found herself in a decently sized room. Enough uncluttered and sturdy floorspace to take a comfortable nap. Chell walked around the room, looking for where she felt it best to rest, fighting back any rising fear she felt at the mere idea of sleeping.  
“Those people, in the portrait.” Chell turned around to face a huge painting. It featured Cave Johnson and a woman Chell assumed to be Caroline. “They look so _familiar_ …” And it all clicked for Chell. GLaDOS had yet to realize _why_ the people were familiar, but Chell understood. And for the first time, she gave GLaDOS a brief look of pure sympathy.  
Chell chose her resting spot to be under the painting. She laid on her side, back to the wall, and held the portal gun close to her, it positioned intentionally so GLaDOS lay close to her cheek. As Chell submitted herself to sleep, she felt an intense fear. She didn’t want to have nightmares, but she had no choice. If she wanted to live, she would have to take this moment to rest.  
Chell could feel the world around her fading as she slipped into unconsciousness. But despite it all, there was one thing she could hear clearly. A voice that was barely a whisper.  
_"Goodnight, Chell"._  
And for the first time in too long, Chell had no nightmare.


End file.
